He is attempting (unconsciously) to restore Stoicism (Self authoring) while also restoring mythology because of the correlation between our intuitions (biology) and archetypes (narratives). In this sense he is reforming religion from supernatural to scientific.

We all carry our class, culture, and religion with us. We don’t know how much of it is genetic, and how much learned. It’s probably like all else, more genetic than we wish to admit. We all intuit man as between Rousseau’s and Hobbes’ vision. The evidence is ‘neither’.

Pinker intuits closer to rousseau and is optimistic, Peterson more towards Smith, and Pessimistic. These are assessments and intuitons not evidentiary truths. If we look at history, man is amoral: moral(reciprocal) immoral (irreciprocal) as suits him.

We have just made it increasingly costly to prefer immorality (free riding, parasitism, predation) over morality (voluntary, fully informed, productive exchange). And as such vastly increased the time man devotes to moral activity, and the disproportionate returns on trade.